IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2015 - 26

Engineering and Professionalism
The FLL opens in early September with
the much-anticipated unveiling of the
season's theme. It continues anywhere
between eight weeks and a few months
until tournament season, with its qualifiers, regionals, and, for a lucky few, an
international competition.
The FLL is about engineering and
professionalism. The centerpiece of the
tournament is the sets of two-and-a-halfminute robot matches. Teams program
LEGO Mindstorms robots to maneuver
their way across a playing board, gathering points for as many missions as they
can by completing tasks such as pushing
levers, shooting balls, spinning wheels,
and opening doors.
The St. Clare's robotics team invented the Pack and Track to help owners protect
In addition to the robot matches,
and locate important documents after a flood.
teams participate in a core values activity and have the chance to explain their
robot design decisions through a robot
for their Nature's Fury project. ChalPack and Track
design executive summary. Finally, each
lenged to invent something that would
In 2012, the team's home of Staten Island
team completes a project related to the
be useful in this type of natural disaster,
was devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
year's theme.
they thought of the residents of Staten
Tucked into an indentation in the AtlanFor the St. Clare's team, tournament
Island whose important documents were
tic coastline between New Jersey and
season means meeting regularly three
washed away in the storm. How could
the southern tip of Long Island, the New
times a week for three hours at a
they help prevent pictures, wills, and
York borough was overcome
time, with an extended five
birth certificates from being destroyed
by
surging
storm
waters
For
hour session on Saturdays.
or lost in future storms?
that had nowhere else
the St. Clare's
The team is coached by
The Pack and Track's slogan is "Findto go. Flooding and
team, tournament
science teacher Mary
ers keepers, losers weepers, find your
damage  were extenseason means meeting
Lee, but the team is
stuff with tracking beepers," and the
sive. When Sandy
self-motivated and
invention is a waterproof plastic conpassed, 23 people
regularly three times a
self-directed.
tainer embedded with a Find One Find
had
lost
their
lives.
week for three hours at a
They decide toAll key finder. Each Find One Find
With the scars
time, with an extended
gether what to focus
All contains both a transmitter and a
from the storm still
five hour session
on at each meeting,
receiver, so if the Pack and Track is lost,
visible on the landon Saturdays.
and sometimes they
pushing a button on the partner Find
scape, Chris, Tommy,
divide and conquer, two
One Find All will sound a beep within
Brianna, and Melissa
working on the robot and two
the Pack and Track.
chose to research flooding
working on the project. They joke
around, have fun, and fall back on humor
to diffuse any tense situations. If they do
have a friendly design disagreement, their
strategy, they say, is to "try both."
As the tournament draws near,
they kick it up a notch. Last year, when
their robot did not perform as well as
expected at the Staten Island Qualifier, the kids put in extra hours at the
lab during the week before Regionals.
Their robot placed third. Yet, it was their
research project that brought them the
Chris, Brianna, Melissa, and Tommy brought home the FLL trophy for research,
most attention.
robot, and all around teamwork.

26

IEEE women in engineering magazine

june 2015



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2015

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